von Marwitz
Forum Guru
AAR - FT320 OSASTO BJORKMAN

This action happens in June 1944 in Finland and pits a Russian Guards force supported by half a dozen tanks against a Finnish unit defending a village – which has an ace up their sleeves: A HIP AT-Gun and 3 HIP StuGs of German built that lose Concealment as if they were Guns...
I played the defending Finns in this one.
By the way, if you wonder why I always seem to play the defender – there is a reason for that: Typically, we play face-to-face at my place. So to divide the organizational overhead, my opponent picks the scenario and does the driving while I print out the VASL map, pick all counters for both sides and have a defensive setup ready when he arrives.
This time, my opponent picked a „Russians vs. Finns“ scenario, which was a welcome change. It has been several years since I last played a scenario involving the Finns and I can't even remember if I played them or the Allied side. When I looked up the scenario in ROAR and in the ASL Scenario Archive, I noticed that it has not had many playings yet – two Russian wins vs. three Finnish ones. Scott Holst, the scenario designer, is a known name, the orders of battle, SSRs, setup and entry directions seemed very straightforward. However, the Excitement Rating by ROAR and the Scenario Archive seemed conspiciously low. I did not put much significance to this, as there had not been many playings, after all, and maybe someone just had had a bad day.
The objective for the Russians entering from offboard is to win a certain number of VP with each Stone Building Location and each Level 2 Hill hex Controlled counting as 1VP. There are 10 Stone Building Locations and 13 Level 2 Hill hexes. It is not sufficient to merely Control all Stone Building Locations, a small number of Hill hexes (or less Building Locations and more Level 2 Hill hexes) are necessary to win. With the hills being bare and lying farther to the back with the village before them, apparently, the Stone Building Locations are the foremost objectives.
The Russian force consists of 16 squads, 3x 628s, 3x 458s, and 10x 447s. They are led by three Leaders, a 9-1, 8-1, and 8-0. This force is only equipped with light SW in the form of 3x LMG, 3x DC and a FT. The armored support appears decent with 3x T-34 M43, 2x T-34/85, and a thick-skinned IS-2 tank with a bad-ass 122L gun.
The Finnish defenders are 4x 648, 3x 548, 4x 447, led by a 10-1 and a 9-0 Leader. Their SW complement consists of 2x Russian MMG, 2x Russian LMG (both usable without Captured Use Penalties), and a Panzerschreck. Of course, the Finns – being Finns – are capable of all sorts of ASL-wizardry: Unless Conscripts, they can Self-Rally (in ALL Rally Phases!), are immune to Cowering, and Elite and 1st Line units are Stealthy, have Assault- and Spraying Fire Capabilities. Although not of consequence here, they are all Ski-capable for good measure. Of consequence, Elite and 1st Line MMC may use Panzerfausts per A25.76 as in July 1944 as if Germans, although the chances of finding one is lower and the range limited to one hex. Their support consists of a German built PaK 40 equivalent using black TH#s and 3x StuG IIIG equivalents also using black TH#s with one 9-1 Armor Leader. The latter are also enhanced by the SSR'ed superpower of setting up HIP as if they were Guns and also losing Concealment as if Guns unless they use their AAMG.
This sounded like fun!
The Terrain:
Good ol' board 3! Somebody recently designated it as his „most hated“ board, but I have always liked it. Besides, there were some terrain alterations in the form of three Overalys RttR F, G, and K. I found me scratching my head for a while what RttR might stand for until it finally dawned on me that the Overlays were from the „Rivers to the Reich“ scenario pack, which featured transformations of ancient SL scenarios to ASL. Using these seemed an indication that the scenario designer Scott Holst is of the „old breed“. The only other, but very significant change was that the M2 Stone Building only has a Ground Level. The Russians would enter from the east (Top in the photograps, right in the VASL screenshot), the Finnish would set up on/west of hexrow AA (lower playing area in the photographs, left in the VASL screenshot). As such, the VASL map was quickly created and printed out.
When I had picked the counters and began looking at the map, I paused.
I realized, that this would be a „terrain with an attitude“ for the Russians. There were basically only two hexes, through which the Russian armor would have to pass in order to gain access to the village. If that weren't enough, due to the M2 building being reduced to Ground Level, these hexes could be overviewed from the Level 2 Hill hexes behind the village. The only alternative would be to chance a Bog Check by creating one or more Trailbreaks through a line of Woods. However, to reach that line of Woods, they would first have to trundle through a literal funnel of death, and even if they emerged on the far side, their position seemed very vulnerable.
As my opponent had picked the scenario and knew that he would be playing the Russians, I shrugged off my concerns believing that he must have got some devilry in mind to tackle the issue, though I could not see any apparent solution for it. And I was looking forward to play the Finns after a long time.
(To be continued)

This action happens in June 1944 in Finland and pits a Russian Guards force supported by half a dozen tanks against a Finnish unit defending a village – which has an ace up their sleeves: A HIP AT-Gun and 3 HIP StuGs of German built that lose Concealment as if they were Guns...
I played the defending Finns in this one.
By the way, if you wonder why I always seem to play the defender – there is a reason for that: Typically, we play face-to-face at my place. So to divide the organizational overhead, my opponent picks the scenario and does the driving while I print out the VASL map, pick all counters for both sides and have a defensive setup ready when he arrives.
This time, my opponent picked a „Russians vs. Finns“ scenario, which was a welcome change. It has been several years since I last played a scenario involving the Finns and I can't even remember if I played them or the Allied side. When I looked up the scenario in ROAR and in the ASL Scenario Archive, I noticed that it has not had many playings yet – two Russian wins vs. three Finnish ones. Scott Holst, the scenario designer, is a known name, the orders of battle, SSRs, setup and entry directions seemed very straightforward. However, the Excitement Rating by ROAR and the Scenario Archive seemed conspiciously low. I did not put much significance to this, as there had not been many playings, after all, and maybe someone just had had a bad day.
The objective for the Russians entering from offboard is to win a certain number of VP with each Stone Building Location and each Level 2 Hill hex Controlled counting as 1VP. There are 10 Stone Building Locations and 13 Level 2 Hill hexes. It is not sufficient to merely Control all Stone Building Locations, a small number of Hill hexes (or less Building Locations and more Level 2 Hill hexes) are necessary to win. With the hills being bare and lying farther to the back with the village before them, apparently, the Stone Building Locations are the foremost objectives.
The Russian force consists of 16 squads, 3x 628s, 3x 458s, and 10x 447s. They are led by three Leaders, a 9-1, 8-1, and 8-0. This force is only equipped with light SW in the form of 3x LMG, 3x DC and a FT. The armored support appears decent with 3x T-34 M43, 2x T-34/85, and a thick-skinned IS-2 tank with a bad-ass 122L gun.
The Finnish defenders are 4x 648, 3x 548, 4x 447, led by a 10-1 and a 9-0 Leader. Their SW complement consists of 2x Russian MMG, 2x Russian LMG (both usable without Captured Use Penalties), and a Panzerschreck. Of course, the Finns – being Finns – are capable of all sorts of ASL-wizardry: Unless Conscripts, they can Self-Rally (in ALL Rally Phases!), are immune to Cowering, and Elite and 1st Line units are Stealthy, have Assault- and Spraying Fire Capabilities. Although not of consequence here, they are all Ski-capable for good measure. Of consequence, Elite and 1st Line MMC may use Panzerfausts per A25.76 as in July 1944 as if Germans, although the chances of finding one is lower and the range limited to one hex. Their support consists of a German built PaK 40 equivalent using black TH#s and 3x StuG IIIG equivalents also using black TH#s with one 9-1 Armor Leader. The latter are also enhanced by the SSR'ed superpower of setting up HIP as if they were Guns and also losing Concealment as if Guns unless they use their AAMG.
This sounded like fun!
The Terrain:
Good ol' board 3! Somebody recently designated it as his „most hated“ board, but I have always liked it. Besides, there were some terrain alterations in the form of three Overalys RttR F, G, and K. I found me scratching my head for a while what RttR might stand for until it finally dawned on me that the Overlays were from the „Rivers to the Reich“ scenario pack, which featured transformations of ancient SL scenarios to ASL. Using these seemed an indication that the scenario designer Scott Holst is of the „old breed“. The only other, but very significant change was that the M2 Stone Building only has a Ground Level. The Russians would enter from the east (Top in the photograps, right in the VASL screenshot), the Finnish would set up on/west of hexrow AA (lower playing area in the photographs, left in the VASL screenshot). As such, the VASL map was quickly created and printed out.
When I had picked the counters and began looking at the map, I paused.
I realized, that this would be a „terrain with an attitude“ for the Russians. There were basically only two hexes, through which the Russian armor would have to pass in order to gain access to the village. If that weren't enough, due to the M2 building being reduced to Ground Level, these hexes could be overviewed from the Level 2 Hill hexes behind the village. The only alternative would be to chance a Bog Check by creating one or more Trailbreaks through a line of Woods. However, to reach that line of Woods, they would first have to trundle through a literal funnel of death, and even if they emerged on the far side, their position seemed very vulnerable.
As my opponent had picked the scenario and knew that he would be playing the Russians, I shrugged off my concerns believing that he must have got some devilry in mind to tackle the issue, though I could not see any apparent solution for it. And I was looking forward to play the Finns after a long time.
(To be continued)